Jeremy Corbyn to attack City of London as Labour party announces plans for more regulation | Politics | News

During the speech, the Labour leader will announce his intentions to take extraordinary steps to introduce new rules to make the City of London the “servant of industry”, not the “masters of us all”.

The left-wing politician will use the speech to launch a blatant attack on politicians who have let the financial sector have “pernicious and undemocratic” control over British politics.

He is expected to say: “For 40 years, deregulated finance has progressively become more powerful.

“Its dominance over industry, obvious and destructive; its control of politics, pernicious and undemocratic.

“The size and power of finance created a generation of politicians who thought the City of London could power the whole economy.

“Out-of-control financial wizardry and gambling were left barely regulated, while the real economies in once-strong industrial areas were put into managed decline

“For a generation, instead of finance serving industry, politicians have served finance.”

At the 2017 General Election, the Labour manifesto boasted a proudly socialist policy programme that included nationalising the railways, scrapping tuition fees and hiking up taxes.

Taking the City as the latest victim to a potential Labour Government, Mr Corbyn will call for more red tape to restrict the practice of the banking industry.

Speaking in London he will say: “The next Labour government will be the first in 40 years to stand up for the real economy.

“We will take decisive action to make finance the servant of industry, not the masters of us all.”

Mr Corbyn’s proposals will also include strengthened Government powers to intervene in hostile takeovers of companies.

His announcement comes after an attempted takeover of the GKN engineering group by Melrose Industries.

The radical opposition leader will say: “We rightly praise the growth of companies like GKN and their location in the UK.

“And yet when we are facing the possible destruction of that company, we are powerless to act.”

Announcing Labour’s plans he will call for greater intervention in the market to stop takeovers the Government deems not to be in the “public interest”.

He will say: “That’s why the next Labour government will broaden the scope of the ‘public interest test’, allowing Government to intervene to prevent hostile takeovers which destroy our industrial base.”

Labour’s attempted seizure of power has been lambasted by industry leaders.

Miles Celic, Chief Executive of TheCityUK, accused Mr Corbyn of failing to understand that the financial sector is a “national asset”.

“Two-thirds of the 2.2million jobs in the industry are outside the M25, as are over half its £95.7billion of exports.

“It is also the country’s largest taxpayer, contributing over £87billion towards funding our vital public services,” he said.

“As well as providing jobs and tax revenue, this industry helps people save for a mortgage, start a Business, invest in new technologies or plan for retirement.”